DES MOINES, Iowa — With an invasion underway and U.S. troops being moved around Europe, military families are opening up about the challenges of having a loved one deployed.
Cathy Tieszen's husband is a Full Bird Colonel in the United States Army Reserve. He's been deployed 15 times and she has been with him for two of those. She said it never gets easier being the one left behind.
"Not knowing from day to day, if you're going to talk to them that night, if you're going to talk to them in a month. And if you're going to be talking to them, something's going to happen, they're going to have to hang up suddenly," Tieszen said.
She said preparing for a deployment means an endless list of things that need to be done.
"There were three pages of things that we had to take care of before he left," Tieszen recalled. "And it's stressful because you don't want to forget anything because once they leave, you don't necessarily have access to them. Communication isn't always great depending on where they're going."
Past National Commander of the American Legion David Rehbein wants families all around the country to know they can get help from the organization.
"We have something called the family support network that works through our network of local American Legion posts around the state of which we have in a neighborhood of 500," Rehbein said. "So it really doesn't matter where that family lives. There's an American Legion Post in their neighborhood."
Tieszen wants people going through this to know the best thing to do is lean on theirs who are going through the same experience.
"There is always someone that can help so ask questions when you don't that's when the scary stuff goes through your brain," she said.
She has a Facebook page called Serving our Troops where military family members can seek support. She encourages people to reach out to her on social media if they are having a difficult time with deployment.
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